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Friday, October 25, 2013

Lizzie: Signature Series and John Conklin

I go up to Boston next week to rehearse and then present BLO's Signature Series "Lizzie Borden took an axe" at the Museum of Fine Arts on Sunday November 3 . This is the newest entry in a series that I have been creating over the past 4 years that deals with each of our operas in the repertory for that season but in a varied and wide range of contexts. Rather than a direct analysis of the music or a discussion of BLO's specific approach we explore how ideas or characters derived from the opera might stretch out into novels, poetry, painting,cinema, history, popular culture. Also rather than a lecture, we create mini -dramas, theater pieces of about an hour in length. We are lucky to be able to use the elegant and comfortable Remis auditorium at the MFA. For our LIZZIE program I am creating a collage as it were of various views of the fascinatingly complex Lizzie herself, newspaper accounts of the murders and excerpts from the sensational trial that transfixed the country. Mixed in with this will be the compelling music from Jack Beeson's opera we will be presenting in the unique atmosphere of the Castle opening November 20 (check out our Website for details ). We welcome to the Sunday afternoon event the well known Boston actress Celeste Oliva and the dynamic Heather Johnson who sings the title role with BLO . Together they will take us into the tortured, ambiguous ( still we ask...did she do it...or not?) and highly dramatic excitement of the world of Lizzie Borden . Join us John Conklin